Definition of Delicacy

1. a choice food [n -CIES]

Medical Definition of Delicacy

1.
Origin: From Delicate.
1. The state or condition of being delicate; agreeableness to the senses; delightfulness; as, delicacy of flavor, of odour, and the like. "What choice to choose for delicacy best." (Milton)
2. Nicety or fineness of form, texture, or constitution; softness; elegance; smoothness; tenderness; and hence, frailty or weakness; as, the delicacy of a fibre or a thread; delicacy of a hand or of the human form; delicacy of the skin; delicacy of frame.
3. Nice propriety of manners or conduct; susceptibility or tenderness of feeling; refinement; fastidiousness; and hence, in an exaggerated sense, effeminacy; as, great delicacy of behavior; delicacy in doing a kindness; delicacy of character that unfits for earnest action. "You know your mother's delicacy in this point." (Cowper)
4. Addiction to pleasure; luxury; daintiness; indulgence; luxurious or voluptuous treatment. "And to those dainty limbs which Nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy?" (Milton)
5. Nice and refined perception and discrimination; critical niceness; fastidious accuracy. "That Augustan delicacy of taste which is the boast of the great public schools of England." (Macaulay)
6. The state of being affected by slight causes; sensitiveness; as, the delicacy of a chemist's balance.
7. That which is alluring, delicate, or refined; a luxury or pleasure; something pleasant to the senses, especially to the sense of taste; a dainty; as, delicacies of the table. "The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies." (Rev. Xviii. 3)
8. Pleasure; gratification; delight. "He Rome brent for his delicacie." (Chaucer)
Synonym: See Dainty.
Source: Websters Dictionary
(01 Mar 1998)

Delicacy Pictures

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Literary usage of Delicacy

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1.The Harvard Classics by Charles William Eliot (1909)"delicacy AN air of robustness arid strength is very prejudicial to beauty.
An appearance of delicacy, and even of fragility, is almost essential to it. ..."

2.Spectator (The)by Richard Steele, Joseph Addison by Richard Steele, Joseph Addison (1836)"Troe delicacy, as I take it, consists in exactness of judgment and dignity of
sentiment, or, if you »ill, punty of affection, as this is opposed to ..."

3.Works by Washington Irving (1897)"Kelly had written a comedy called False delicacy, in which were embodied all the
meretricious qualities of the sentimental school. ..."

4.The Harvard Classics by Charles William Eliot (1909)"delicacy AN air of robustness arid strength is very prejudicial to beauty.
An appearance of delicacy, and even of fragility, is almost essential to it. ..."

5.Spectator (The)by Richard Steele, Joseph Addison by Richard Steele, Joseph Addison (1836)"Troe delicacy, as I take it, consists in exactness of judgment and dignity of
sentiment, or, if you »ill, punty of affection, as this is opposed to ..."

6.Works by Washington Irving (1897)"Kelly had written a comedy called False delicacy, in which were embodied all the
meretricious qualities of the sentimental school. ..."